Escape
by Kael Wind
Summary: A girl bewitches a fellow sprite, and they travel together to Mainframe...Bob gets injured in a game.


A girl that looks around 23 hours old steps through a portal into a darkened system with a full cyber moon overhead. She has on sky blue skintight pants and a yellow tank top. A midnight blue scarf covers her short black hair. Her pearl white skin and deep sea green eyes give her a look of innocence, and around her neck is a chain with 7 charms.

She reaches into a small pouch on her belt and retrieves a miniaturized zip board. She maximizes it and starts traveling through the streets. A few nanos later, she stops at a small bar called Li's. She jumps off her zip board, returns it to her belt, and proceeds through the front door.

She gets stares from everyone as she walks intently up to the bar. The bartender asks her, "Aren't you a little young to be in here?" She ignores his question and instead asks her own question.  
"I'm looking for a man named Elathan. Do you know where he is?"  
She speaks with a smooth Irish accent.  
"Who wants to know?"  
"My name is Ali. I'd like to speak with him."  
"I'll be right back"  
He walks through a door that is right behind him and emerges a nano later.  
"Go up the stairs and in the last door on your right."

Following his directions, she walks up the stairs and past a few doors in which she hears unmentionable sounds from. When she reaches the correct door, it is open so she walks right in. She sees a tall, slender, 18-hour-old man. He immediately stands and greets her with a smile and the same Irish accent as her own.

"Hello, my name is Elathan. How may I help you?"

She silently examines him from head to foot. He has dark blue skin and white shoulder length hair pulled into a single braid. Silver eyes shine and a white goatee contrasts to his dark complexion. He wears a white muscle shirt, black boots, and black jeans with a chain belt.

She nods and says, "I am pleased. You shall do fine." "What are you talking about?" He aquires an expression of confusion, but does not move. She takes a step toward him and he takes one back. He falls back into the chair he was previously in and realizes he can no longer move. When she arrives at his side, she waves her hand in front of his face, and he falls into a trance-like state.

"Listen to me carefully. Your name is Aero Wind and I am your younger sister Rena Wind. We are of the system Carathia that was destroyed by Daemon. Our mother was deleted when the system was destroyed. Our father, we believe, was captured by Daemon. A game preceded the system crashing and we are the only survivors. That was around 3 minutes ago and we've been game hopping ever since hoping to find a new life. All the other systems the games landed on were either captured or destroyed by Daemon. That is our story. Now I will give you some new memories to replace those of this life. Receive them with honor."

She holds her hands with palms facing his temples. Lavender energy flows from her hands and into his head.

"We will leave this user-forsaken system with the next game."

As if on cue a voice is heard throughout the system.

**"Warning: Incoming Game" **

Bob is awakened by the annoying sound of a game warning. He jumps out of bed and quickly gets dressed and is out the door within a nano. He looks to see the game halfway down 3 sectors away and races to get there in time. He makes it with only moments to spare.

He is transformed into a magician. He is wearing a white robe and on his wrists are small red/violet gems. He is looking around at his surroundings when he hears a voice.

"We've been in this game before do you recognize it."  
"No, sorry sis I don't remember much after…"  
"Aero do you hear something."

Bob looks around him and before he sees it coming he's hit by an arrow in the shoulder. He falls back from the force of the hit and tries to get up but fails, cursing himself for being so inattentive. He pulls the arrow out and tosses it away, pressing a hand against the wound. He then sees a young girl and a man run out of the line of trees he is near and stop in front of him. The man starts firing elemental bolts at the user, which is an archer using flaming arrowheads. The girl runs toward the user and raises a bunch of zombies and skeletons out of the ground. Bob joins in and begins casting ice and water spells with his free arm. Sometime during the attack on the user, the girl pulls out a mace and commences a good old fashioned beating for a little while occasionally stopping to raise more skeletons and zombies. Bob is eventually unable to even form a small ball of magic in his hands but is too weak from loss of blood. He eventually passes out. The game ends a short while after he does so.

"Game Over" 

Aero and Rena watch the game cube retreat into the sky. Rena notices the injured, offline sprite lying on the ground a few feet way from them. She runs to him and examines his wound. She tears off the clothing around it and pulls her scarf from around her hair and uses it to wrap around the wound. Aero watches this and when she is done he says "We need to get him to a doctor." Then he looks around. "We don't know where we are ourselves…Hey lucky us, look there's someone now I'll go ask." Aero runs toward 2 sprites that are revealed as Matrix and AndrAIa. He slows to a walk when he gets near them. "Please could you tell me where we could find a doctor your guardian is very badly hurt."

Matrix's eyes widen, "Bob's hurt! Where is he?" Aero turns around, "Follow me." He runs back to where Rena is, "Sis I've brought help." She looks at AndrAIa and Matrix. "Good. Can you carry him Aero?" he nods then says to the couple, "Just lead us to a hospital and we'll follow."

All sprites pull out a zip board and head toward the PO. Matrix is in the lead followed by Aero. AndrAIa slows down so she can talk to Rena. "What happened to him?" She looks up at AndrAIa, "I'll tell you when we get there. How much further is it?" "Not much."

They reach the PO within nanos. Matrix leads everyone through the front doors and takes Aero through another set of doors while AndrAIa and Rena sit. "Do you want me to tell you now or should we wait for you friend?" AndrAIa stays standing, "Let's wait. I should call Dot too." She opens a vid window to Dot. "What's up Andi? Why so early?" "You should come down here. Bob's been hurt." "What! All right I'm on my way." The vid closes and AndrAIa sits down and glances at Rena. "We need to wait for Dot. She is Bob's girlfriend and she's the too." As she says this Matrix and Aero walk back through the doors they went into.

A few more nanos pass and Dot walks in. "Hey guys." AndrAIa stands and approaches Dot. "I thought you'd like to meet the sprites that were in the game with Bob." She leads her to where Rena and the others are sitting. Rena rises when she sees AndrAIa followed by Dot. Rena introduces herself. "My name is Rena Wind and this is my brother Aero." She holds out her hand and Dot takes it. "Dot Matrix." Both sit and Aero takes his turn shaking the hand. AndrAIa asks Rena, "Will you tell us now what happened." The young girl nods.

"My brother and me were in the game talking when I heard a noise. It sounded like someone running on grass. And sure enough it was the user. We heard your guardian hit the ground and we ran out to see what attacked him. We saw the user prepare to fire an arrow at us but before she could do anything we started to attack. Aero was firing magic at the user and I was beating on the user along with my minions. I'm not sure about Aero but I didn't pay any attention to the sprite. I was focusing on deleting the user.

"Well, the game ended and I saw him on the ground offline. An arrow hit him in his shoulder, which he had apparently pulled out in the game. There was a small puddle of energy beneath the wound. I went to him, wrapped the wound with my scarf, and hoped that we could get him to a doctor in time. Aero saw a couple walking past us. He went to them and brought them back." She motions toward AndrAIa and Matrix. "They led us here"


End file.
